Is development studies becoming too brainy? A comparison of World Development Reports

This article argues that two types of “brainisation” hinder development studies researchers in their phronetic understanding of poor people’s realities. It first provides a literature review on two types of knowledge and their differences, as well as two types of brainisation and how they prevent development studies scholars gaining a holistic understanding of the marginalised. Subsequently, a comparative analysis is conducted on two World Development Reports. Finally, alternative scenarios are outlined for the “debrainisation” of development studies and researchers’ mind-sets by learning from the fundamental features of human life.     

Grassroots practices of citizenship and politicization in the urban: the case of right to the city initiatives in Barcelona

This article aims to produce an analysis of the politicization of the citizens after Spain’s Indignados movement from a citizenship framework. The article suggests that claiming the right to the city involves more than issues of access to urban amenities: it is also about claiming the right to participate in the formation and transformation of the city and the right to appropriate the city center. This positions these rights within the larger issue of citizenship by defining it as a collective practice rather than a state-sanctioned status. Our analysis is based on the empirical evidence derived from the semi-structured interviews, politicians’ speeches, information based on media resources and official websites, and participant observation during three months of fieldwork in Barcelona in 2016.     

Substance abuse and its risks leading to a crime： An empirical research based on investigations in university students in Istanbul

The main aim of this paper is to reveal the relationships between substance abuse and criminal conducts through examining the current situation of substance abuse among youth, their knowledge level of substance and their experiences involving in crimes. Data were collected from 312 university students in Istanbul by questionnaires which consist of three parts, 35 questions concerning alcohol use, drug use, cigarette use, and crime-involving experiences under the influence of alcohol or other substances. Results indicate that the university students use cigarette and alcohol mostly. They do not consider the risk of being a victim or an offender in a crime when they are under the influence of alcohol. In fact, the actual proportion of young people who indicated that they had ever been involved in a crime, while they were drunk, is quite small.     

Moving Development and Security Narratives a Step Further: Human Security in the Human Development Reports

During the last 20 years, the idea of human security has been spreading globally and locally, albeit unevenly. One factor in this growth has been the role of Human Development Reports as sources of alternative narratives to understand social problems and progress. This paper describes how National and Regional Human Development Reports have generated a rich and analytically fruitful set of approaches to examining and responding to contextual threats, following human security principles – for people-centred, comprehensive, context-specific and prevention-oriented analysis and exploring basic security questions. However, this richness has not fed back yet into the global apex of Human Development Reports and related work, reflecting a disconnection between levels of analysis that hinders the transformation of development and security narratives.     

Deeper concessions and rising barriers to entry: New regionalism for Turkey and Mexico

New regionalism is redefining core and semi-periphery relations in the world economy. Focusing on Turkey and Mexico and their respective regional agreements, NAFTA and the Customs Union with the European Union, this article claims that barriers to entry into regional blocs increased considerably during the 1990s. While systemic international relations theories explain why both Mexico and Turkey made significant concessions in order to enter into regional agreements, they cannot fully account for the timing and terms of bargaining during regional negotiations. A simultaneous look at both the domestic and international bargaining processes shows that it was the domestic pressures in the United States and the European Union (and the relative absence of such pressures in Mexico and Turkey) that enhanced the terms of bargaining of the existing members against these aspiring countries. A synthetic approach that combines international pressures with domestic dynamics explains why new regionalism in the global economy is becoming a new challenge for such countries.     

Empowering women at home and beyond: applying Japanese experiences for poverty alleviation

The problem of poverty pockets in middle income countries has been identified as a major constraint for realising the Millennium Development Goals. There is an international need to develop programmes that alleviate poverty of identified populations without incurring their dependency on external aid. Aiming at developing such a programme, this article introduces the Japanese post-war Life Improvement Program and analyses the potential of its application to contemporary developing countries for poverty alleviation in a self-sufficient manner, intending to empower women. Issues such as gender relations, evaluating impacts, and linking practices to larger programmes and policies are also discussed.     

Lessons learned from inter-laboratory studies of carbon isotope analysis of honey

Forensic application of carbon isotope ratio measurements of honey and honey protein to investigate the degree of adulteration with high fructose corn syrup or other C₄ plant sugars is well established. These measurements must use methods that exhibit suitable performance criteria, particularly with regard to measurement uncertainty and traceability – low levels of adulteration can only be detected by methods that result in suitably small measurement uncertainties such that differences of 1‰ or less can be reliably detected. Inter-laboratory exercises are invaluable to assess the state-of-the art of measurement capabilities of laboratories necessary to achieve such performance criteria. National and designated metrology institutes from a number of countries recently participated in an inter-laboratory assessment (CCQM-K140) of stable carbon isotope ratio determination of bulk honey. The same sample material was distributed to a number of forensic isotope analysis laboratories that could not participate directly in the metrological comparison. The results from these studies have demonstrated that the majority of participants provided isotope delta values with acceptable performance metrics; that all participants ensured traceability of their results; and that where measurement uncertainties were reported; these were fit-for-purpose. A number of the forensic laboratories only reported precision rather than full estimates of measurement uncertainty and this was the major cause of the few instances of questionable performance metrics. Reporting of standard deviations in place of measurement uncertainties is common practice outside metrology institutes and the implications for interpretations of small differences in isotopic compositions are discussed. The results have also highlighted a number of considerations that are useful for organisers of similar inter-laboratory studies in the future.